Undergraduate - UnitAZA2541 - Research methods in Geography and Environmental science

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	South Africa School of Social Sciences
Offered	Not offered in 2015
Coordinator(s)	Dr Agnes Babugura

Synopsis

This unit seeks to provide the student with introductory background in research methodology relevant to Geography and Environmental Science. Basic statistical techniques needed to carry out research will be introduced. These include measures of central tendency, spatial distribution, time series, probability distributions, hypothesis testing as well as correlation and regression will be covered to help students analyse and interpret geographic data. Library and online research techniques as well as field techniques including sampling and interviewing techniques will be covered.

Outcomes

Upon satisfactory completion of the unit, students will be able to:

collect, analyse and interpret quantitative and qualitative geographic data
be able to synthesise and interpret relevant material and to communicate ideas to others in a coherent manner, by either written or verbal means
be familiar and proficient with some simple techniques for conducting qualitative and quantitative research.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Agnes Babugura

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Geography and environmental science (ARTS)

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of first-year Arts units.

Prohibitions

ATS2541, ATS3541, AZA3541